Nurturing Yourself

I went to an enrichment a while back about nurturing yourself, and I now realize I never shared the fun things I learned. Our leader was a neighbor of mine who is a professional life coach. I thought it was an interesting class, so I thought I'd share it with my friends, most of whom are women who may not nurture themselves enough. :)

Elder M. Russell Ballard said, "Sisters, find some time for yourself to cultivate your gifts and interests. Pick one or two things that you would like to learn or do that will enrich your life, and make time for them. Water cannot be drawn from an empty well, and if you are not setting aside a little time for what replenishes you, you will have less and less to give to others."

There you have it straight from a General Authority! We were then asked to write down 10 things we like to do, and 10 things we feel good after doing. (In case you're wondering the difference -- There are things I love doing like scrapbooking and playing games with my kids. However, there are others -- like cleaning or exercising -- that I don't like doing, but I always feel good after I do them.)

From these things, she said to pick one thing, and schedule it in -- pick a specific day and time you will do this thing, and then give yourself a reward for actually doing it. She said it is also a lot more effective if you make yourself accountable to someone -- if I you know you have to report back to someone, you are more likely to do it.

President Gordon B. Hinckley said, "In all of living have much fun and laughter. Life is to be enjoyed, not just endured." He also said, "Find a purpose in your life. Choose the things you would like to do, and educate yourselves to be effective in their pursuit."

Then we were given homework -- answering the following questions:

• If you had three months to live, what would you wish you had done or experienced?
• If you had a year to pursue anything you wanted to, what would it be?
• If you were transported to your 85th year and were asked to review your life, what would you say?
• If money were no object, what would I be/do/have in my life that would make me happy? (MAID SERVICE for me!!!)
• If I could be with people I chose, what would y relationships look like?
• If the functional part of my life was taken care of, what interests would I pursue?
• If someone else saw me living my ideal life, what would they describe?
• If I took classes in areas of interest or need to improve, what would the class topics be?

Anyway, I hope you all take time to make sure your well is full, and that you nurture yourselves once in a while. Reading friends' blogs is one of the things I do to get a little nurturing -- and something that I can do quickly and easily without interruptions from kids. Murphy's law: As I went to type that sentence Shayla started grabbing my arms and saying, "My turn!" Ha! Nurturing over ...